Pontiac Cultural Art ~ Latino Style

Monday, September 24, 2012

Pontiac Cultural Art ~ Latino Style

A little over a week ago I attended the opening reception of the Pontiac Creative Arts Center exhibit "Celebrate" Celebrating Hispanic Culture. I enjoyed the exhibit because it gives local artists a way to display their work in a beautiful setting. The art celebrates their community and culture. There are images that reflect Detroit, and Dia de Los Muertos. The pieces give the viewer an idea of how Latinos live everyday. The art also pays homage to our past with a painting of an Aztec warrior. There are many different styles the artists used to express their background and who they are.

I enjoy seeing how individuals capture who they are through their art work. We define ourselves by our history, our celebrations, our environment, our interests, and our food! Then somehow we find a way to express those things that define us through photography, music, acting, painting, sculpture or even fashion. I hope that the Latinos in the Pontiac area can visit the exhibit and feel connected to what the artists created.
Maybe the the art reminds you of:
- Your love of soccer
- The Aztec warrior t-shirt phase your brother went through in high school
- The first and only Quinceanera you attended
- The pottery your sister brought back from Mexico
- The Mexican calendar you still need to frame
- Or the traditional Mexican blouse filled with beautiful colors of floral embroidery hanging in your closet.
:)

~The exhibit is will be on display until October 25th 2012.

Fashion Facts

*Apparently Egyptian cotton is grown in Texas.

*Thread Count is the actual amount of threads per area,times the amount of times that area is repeated in the fabric.

*Fashion design is needed for everyday life. Not only are clothes manufactured, but also seat belts, flame resistant seats in airplanes, water resistant fabics, anti-bacterial fabric for hospitals, etc. The list goes on, and shows how vital this industry is in our daily lives.

*Some new findings in the fashion world are garments made from bamboo and pinapple.Fashion is also "going green" as our society is.

*Angora clothing is made from the Angora rabbit not the Angora goat.

* If you are looking for breathable clothing choose ones made from cotton, wool, and rayon ... not nylon, polyester nor olefan.

* Silk may be pretty and expensive but raw silk is stinky :P

Q : What Is Fashion?

“The difference between style and fashion is quality.”
Giorgio Armani

“While clothes may not make the woman, they certainly have a strong effect on her self-confidence — which, I believe, does make the woman."
Mary Kay Ash

We're dealing with sophisticated customers. What's most important to these women is individuality. I have to create things she'll want to wear, no matter who she is.
Oscar De La Renta

“It's interesting to see it all unravel. Gossip magazines, just by catching people walking down the streets, can actually be more effective and fashion-oriented than fashion magazines.”
-Ashley Olsen

[When his wife asked him to change clothes to meet the German Ambassador]:"If they want to see me, here I am. If they want to see my clothes, open my closet and show them my suits.”
Albert Einstein

“The expression a woman wears on her face is more important than the clothes she wears on her back.”
Dale Carnegie

"The ideal wardrobe allows a woman to select clothes that are suitable for lunch with friends, going to the office, or doing errands."
Kate Spade

"Fashion, not just as clothes but as a lifestyle and as a cultural force, has ascended to almost transcend music and film."
Marc Levin

"Fashion offers no greater challenge than finding what works for night without looking like you are wearing a costume."
Vera Wang

"It's the kind of clothes that mothers and daughters can wear, in terms of concept, it's not about age. It's about taste, lifestyle. I believe women of all ages can wear anything."
Ralph Lauren

"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months."
Oscar Wilde

"Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new."
Henry David Thoreau

"Above all, remember that the most important thing you can take with you anywhere is not a Gucci bag or french-cut jeans; it's an open mind."
Gail Rubin Berney

"It took me years to work out what was so special about Vuitton. But when you go to the workshops outside of Paris and see how everything is crafted, it is pretty impressive. Added to that, it's easy identifiable and I guess human instinct is to want to be part of an exclusive club that's also highly recognizable."
Marc Jacobs

“Fashion is one of the richest expressions of human desires, ambitions, needs, frailty, insecurity, security. What we wear is an indication of our sense of ourselves. It’s a gift. Fashion has been in all art history. Look at the Velasquez’s, the Goya’s. Look at what they are wearing in the Whistler’s, and what they are wearing is fashion!”
Richard Avedon

"For me fashion is fun, and it's supposed to help you feel good about yourself. I think that's what all women should focus on: what makes them happy and feel comfortable and beautiful. I wear what I love. Sometimes people like it, sometimes they don't. I'm fine with that."
Michelle Obama

“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.”
Cecil Beaton

“Zest is the secret of all beauty. There is no beauty that is attractive without zest.”
Christian Dior

“Over the years I have learned that what is important in a dress is the woman who is wearing it.”
Yves Saint Laurent

“Fashion is born by small facts, trends, or even politics, never by trying to make little pleats and furbelows, by trinkets, by clothes easy to copy, or by the shortening or lengthening of a skirt.”
Elsa Schiaparelli

“Fashion is about change and, for me, the philosophy is always the same ... that the clothes have to be really modern and make women look really beautiful, ... But, it's fun to keep changing and to change the silhouettes, to change the fabrics and to change the color. Color this fall is really going to change too, because there is color.”
Calvin Klein

"As a fashion designer, I was always aware that I was not an artist, because I was creating something that was made to be sold, marketed, used, and ultimately discarded."
Tom Ford

"I haven't been thinking about what I need to make to win but what I love!"
Kenley Collins

“Clothes are not reflecting anything. People reflect. And I think that a good dress is a dress that disappears when you wear it. It is not really about the dress...it’s really about the woman who wears it and what that dress does to her face.”
Alber Elbaz

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort."
Franklin D Roosevelt

“Fashion absolutely matters, but it doesn't matter absolutely.”
- Claudia Shear

A : What The People Say

"Dress shabbily, they notice clothes. Dress impeccably they notice you."
Coco Chanel

"This was the best thing for me..to make dresses. I am a disaster in everything else."
Valentino

"That is the key of this collection, being yourself. Don't be into trends. Don't make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way to live."
Gianni Versace

“We start the collection with sharply tailored Moroccan inspired suits. And then, as the show progresses, it becomes gentler, softer, more feminine. Men's evening dress shirts suddenly become wafting long dresses in leopard print sweater chiffon.”
John Galliano

"Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world." Bette Midler

“Fashion has to bring a dream. Fashion has to make people happy.”
Alber Elbaz

"One is never over- or under dressed with a little black dress."
Karl Lagerfeld

"Never in my wildest dreams did I entertain the idea that I would become a fashion designer."
Giorgio Armani

"Oh, never mind the fashion. When one has a style of one's own, it is always twenty times better."
Margaret Oliphant

"Once you establish a look, and once everybody recognizes that look as your look, you never have to think about fashion again."
Doug Coupland

"People say it's really the press who create those soundbites about fashion. That's what sells magazines and clothes."
Isaac Mizrahi

"Sometimes the eye gets so accustomed that if you don't have a change, you're bored. It's the same with fashion, you know. And that, I suppose, is what style is about."
Bill Blass

"We have the Terminator as governor, and we had an actor as president, so why shouldn't we have a fashion designer as a senator?"
Tom Ford

"It's not about the effort it's about the results."
professor T

"It's hard to go with a trend. As soon as it's out, everyone picks it up. It's important to stay true to yourself. Have fun with fashion instead of letting it dictate."
Estella Warren

"It's not money that make you well-dressed it's understanding."
Christian Dior

"One should either be a work of art or wear a work of art."
Oscar Wilde

"I have often said that i wished I invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity- all I hope for in my clothes."
Yves Saint Laurent

"In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different." Coco Channel

"Fashion is entertainment. That's why these top models are so fascinating to kids. They're dying to know about Naomi and Christy, or whoever we've declared the new one this afternoon."
Carrie Donovan

"Fashion is in my blood. Growing up, I was always clacking around the house in my mother's shoes."
Sophia Bush

"Fashion is very important. It is life-enhancing and, like everything that gives pleasure, it is worth doing well."
Vivienne Westwood

"I have never gone out of fashion. And do you know why? Because I never sought it. When you don't seek it, it's always with you."
Bonnie Tyler

"I think of many people and no one as a muse. I love the way Sofia looks always, and I love the way Kim looks always. Fashion may be part of their world, but it's not their whole life. It's not everything."
Marc Jacobs

"If i should be good at fashion design i should stick to one thing."
Oscar De La Renta

"I'm always being inspired by something DIFFERENT.Something new. Something ABSURD. It could be a person sitting a cross from me or a full Victorian Costume."
Mary-Kate Olsen

"Be sure what you want and be sure about yourself. Fashion is not just beauty, it's about good attitude. You have to believe in yourself and be strong."
Adriana Lima

"We can't go naked, as long as we wear clothes there is fashion."
Oscar De La Renta

"Fashion is a social agreement. The result of a consensus of a large group of people."
Stella Blum

"In France, Paris in particular, they say that women can wear a shirt, jeans, and a scarf and look absolutely fabulous."
professor P

"To be Stylish: The ability to be yourself, smile and have confidence in whatever crazy outfit you put on."
Jeanologie

"Fashion could mean a reflection of everything that is happening. Fashion could be a wonderful world to absolve, a way of expression and demonstrating how you feel and what you think... A way of making your life wonderful by admiring all the beauty of the universe and how it could be represented in everything that surrounds you, even in your clothes..."
Lulu Martin

Monday, September 24, 2012